Taking a more unconventional route into the world of pro cycling, De Keersmaeker is from a sporty family where her mum was a good tennis player and at one point was ranked 14th in the world as a junior. However, her mum didn’t want her to follow down the same path so instead Audrey tried her hand at multiple sports as a youngster; with swimming being her main chosen sport.
Making her way to the top level of Belgian swimming, Audrey felt like she “reached her limit” in the sport and with pools closed during Covid-19, she thought “why not try cycling.”
After a little while she saw a Belgian TV show called Koers Zoekt Vrouw was looking for participants where the winner would get a contract with a pro cyclocross team. Beating off roughly 4000 contestants in total, De Keersmaeker would go on to win the competition and began her career on two wheels.
Gaining some experience on the road with her cyclocross then club team, she made the move over to Lotto Dstny at the Continental level in 2024, where she took part in some of the biggest races on the calendar such as the Tour de France Femmes.
Now making the next step in her career by joining the team, Audrey hopes that she can continue her development and progress to the next level.
“I think my time in cyclocross has helped me with my bike handling skills, but I still have a lot of room for improvement in general road racing and become stronger so that I can push more and for longer.”
To do that, Audrey is the type of person who motivates herself by visualising upcoming races and goals when she is out training, while maintaining that balance of enjoying herself and exploring new places.
Describing herself as “dedicated”, “happy” and “supportive”, Audrey is excited to see what the future brings in her new home. Although coming to the sport late, she hopes to be able to put that supportive characteristic to good use with the younger riders on the team and share some of her experience and knowledge from outside of cycling.
“Nothing comes for free and you have to work to get there, but it’s also important to enjoy what you do and don’t overthink things at times.”
Away from her life on two wheels, Audrey enjoys spending time outside walking her English cocker spaniel called Mila. Interestingly, she also holds the Belgian national record at her age group from when she was younger for the amount of weight she could bench press – although she jokes that those days are long behind her!